Economic analyses of agency relationships imply that such abuse is economically rational and, indeed, inevitable under certain conditions (see, e.g., Jensen and Meckling 1976, p. 313). But equating the structural opportunities to abuse agency and the actual seizing of these illegitimate opportunities obscures the difficult task of accounting for the latter (something to which neither economists nor sociologists have made much of a contribution).

XREF: Relates to principal-agent theory literature and the gap between incentives and realized behavior.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 37